We Have A Hulk
by Ktkat9
Summary: The Hulk was rage and nothing but. That was how he was seen by the world. His team, however, felt differently. Or, five times the Hulk protected his team, and one time they returned the favor.
1. Black Widow

To the world, the Hulk was someone they could count on when they were in trouble. When they weren't, however, the Hulk was something to fear. It destroyed their homes, threatened their lives, and was protected by the government simply because it was an asset when things went Nordic. Or robotic. Either way.

To the beings attempting to take over/destroy the world, the Hulk was a formidable adversary. He was by far the strongest of the Avengers, while his alter ego was arguably the smartest. The only one to challenge him for that title was the billionaire tech expert. He was also a loose cannon, which made him even worse. He could not be intimidated like the others, he'd smash whoever tried. He wouldn't listen to threats, or bribes. He was unable to be blackmailed. At first, some of their enemies had hoped that putting such an unstable beast on their team of Earth's Defenders would lead to the Hulk turning on _them_ , eventually, but such a thing never happened. Well, aside from a few instances, that is.

But to the Avengers, the Hulk was their very own guardian. And, for a group of people who were so used to being everyone else's guardians, that was a surprising, but welcome change. It obviously didn't happen overnight, but after a while, they began to take notice.

Yyyyy

The Black Widow

Natasha knew she was in trouble the moment her gun clicked, signaling that it was empty. The Avengers had been called out to handle Lord Zaltak, an escapee from the local asylum. He had been forcefully admitted four years prior due to severe, often violent delusions. His real name was Morgan DeLancey, and he used to be an up and coming genius prosecution attorney. That life had come to an end, however, when he had been handed the case of psychotic, vengeful, chemist, Peter Quartz. The man had killed eleven people over the course of two years, and when he'd been convicted at the hand of DeLancey, he had sworn revenge. One month after a mass breakout of the local prison, the attorney was attacked in his home. During recovery in the ICU, Lord Zaltak made his appearance. And, unfortunately, he had (as this was New York, after all) amassed a sizeable number of followers to help him take over the world. As he had been planning this for a while, it was more than the police could handle. Especially since Lord Zaltak was apparently a robotics genius and had equipped his army with power ups.

"Iron Man, I need back up! Where are you?" She hollered into her earpiece.

"I'm a little busy right now, Nat." Came the slightly breathless response. A moment later, she heard him grunt in pain.

A man ran at her, wielding a handgun. Snarling in frustration, she leapt in the air, spun, and landed a solid kick to the side of his head. Barely even pausing, she landed, grabbed the fallen gun, and fired off two shots at a pair taking aim at the Demigod that was her teammate. They both fell to the ground, but she had already turned and ducked behind an overturned car, taking refuge for just a moment to check how many bullets she had. Two bullets left. That was all.

"Might as well make 'em count." She growled to herself. Standing up, she instantly locked her eyes on her target, a burley muscle builder of a man pointing a grenade launcher at their team leader. The moment she pulled the trigger, though, she found herself having to dodge flying bits of rubble as something slammed into the building right beside her. Spinning and pointing her last bullet, she paused in surprise as the Hulk stepped out of the hole he had just made.

"Watch back." Was all he grunted before leaping off to take on another foe. Inside, under the pile of rubble, rose a whimper from her would-be attacker.

Yyyyy

Okay, so, I saw that there are a lot of stories out there where the Hulk shows that he cares (in his own way) about his team, and this popped into my mind. It was originally going to be a one-shot, but it got to be too long, and I split it up into a chapter story. Please tell me what you think! Review! :3


	2. Thor

The demi-god stood in horror. His side throbbed slightly in pain, but he took no notice. Just moments ago he and Hulk had been helping their team round up a minor invasion of alien drones. There were about five in total, but their speed made a sure number hard to acquire. Thor and Hulk had ended up chasing one a good distance before they were able to destroy it. In his joy over their relatively easy victory, he had (and was now severely berating himself over it) allowed himself to cease paying attention to his surroundings. An instant later, his giant ally had slammed into him, hard enough to impale him in a nearby hillside. His first thought had been that the gamma beast had wanted to quarrel some more, but that notion was repealed in an instant. One of those contraptions, a human invention for moving merchandise around (he briefly remembered Tony calling them 'trains' in the past) had attempted to sneak up on him.

"HULK!" But it was already too late. It crashed into his friend, and from there . . . hell on earth was the only term to describe what happened next. Boxes went flying everywhere, along with dirt and rubble. The screaming, screeching, snapping metal drowned out his desperate cry. "BANNER!"

 _"Thor! What happened?"_ Hawkeye shouted through his comm.

Thor couldn't bring himself to respond. How could he put into words what had just happened? What made his freeze, though, wasn't the fact that he had just witnessed the Hulk shove him out of the way of a train. No. It was the fact that the Hulk had not reappeared. The wreck had more or less finished, but through all the dust and smoke, there was no giant, hulking, teammate.

"No. No, no. _Hulk! Show yourself!"_ He whirled, head spinning. This wasn't possible. It just couldn't happen. Not to an Avenger. Certainly not to the strongest of them all. _"HULK!"_

It took the rest of their team just a few minutes to arrive, and by then Thor had begun looking; hefting huge pieces of wreckage, being careful to not crush whatever may be underneath.

"Thor, what happened? Where's Hulk?" Iron Man landed near him, lifting his face shield.

Thor didn't even spare a glance in his direction. "One of your land machines snuck up on me. Hulk pushed me out of the way . . . at his own expense. He was unable to get himself to safety." He grunted as he moved a particularly heavy section.

The rest of the Avengers shared shocked expressions. "Hulk was hit by a train?!"

"What the hell were you doing in the middle of the tracks?"

"He must have reverted back to Bruce afterwards."

"Oh, shit. Bruce."

As one, they spread out to look. Thor continued to curse his lapse of judgment, digging through pile after pile looking for his savior. There was just no way- stop. He took a quick moment to shake his head vigorously. It would do no good to dwell on how this happened, or even the fact that it had. All that he could afford to focus on was searching. Searching and finding. Because there was no way they were going anywhere without him.

Capitan America swallowed his bile as he did the one task he had dared to hope he'd never again have to do in his time: search through rubble for what could quite possibly be the corpse of a dear friend. He shoved aside what used to be a large crate and tossed it free of the crash site. No sense in leaving it where it was. And it couldn't hurt to relieve a bit of stress. Sure he and Banner had grown closer after their initial meeting, but they had never actually been as close as some (or any, really) of their other Avengers. He had always been a bit unnerved around the other man. At first, it was just because of the destructive, uncontrollable monster that had been put on his team, and therefore, under his responsibility.

It was their battles, however, that had changed his mind. Sure, he was wary of the Hulk, (who wouldn't be) but the man still made him uncomfortable. He was a scientist; specializing in areas the leader had never heard of. He was able to not only keep up with, but also occasionally rein in, Tony Stark. That, he realized suddenly, was a large contributor to helping Cap stay in charge. But it was not only that. The man, both of them, actually, (as 'monster' no longer seemed fitting for the Hulk in his eyes. Not after he had witnessed him save Tony) had proved themselves heroes time and again. Why had it taken so long for him to realize that the Avengers were not a team of six, but seven? Bruce was not just an Avenger so the government could keep any eye on the Hulk. He held his place on the team in his own right. And now, there was a very real chance that they could lose both of them.

Tony, on the other hand was not as composed as their Cap appeared to be. No. His best friend was buried somewhere under here. He had to stop a few times to remind himself to breathe, but other than that, he moved with a franticness not usually seen in the surprisingly calm and calculating robotics expert. Because each second it took for him to lift another piece of trash, only to realize there was no one there, was another second that Bruce was without the medical attention he would surely need.

The two assassins, both without any powers to call their own, had teamed up and left the heavier pieces to be moved by everyone else. They would be of more use staying out of the way, setting up what first aid materials they had brought with them into the field, and calling the situation in. Hopefully they would be able to at least keep him stabilized until help arrived.

It was about then that the shout went up. _"Banner!"_ Thor was on his knees immediately, not caring about anything but freeing the unmoving figure he had just discovered under a section of steel door. Everyone bolted over, helping to lift and gently remove the scrap hindering help reaching their friend. Carefully, Thor removed his cape and laid it on the now exposed ground by Bruce. As smoothly as possible, he was lifted and placed on top of the red fabric. Everyone took a section of the makeshift stretcher and moved to a clear place to examine him. The doctor looked terrible. Aside from his usual lack of clothes, (minus the pants, as not even Hulk had managed to break Tony's little invention. They had been given to Bruce as a 'late Christmas present. And who cares if it's spring? It's Christmas somewhere!') Bruce was bleeding from his head and several cuts along his arms and torso. One leg had a nasty bruise, while a particularly long cut ran the entire way from his right shoulder, to his left hip.

"Let's do what we can until backup gets here." Hawkeye set his jaw and got to work. Slowly, silently, so did his team.

Yyyyy

When Bruce woke up, he was in his bed at Avengers Tower. He blinked at he ceiling for a few moments, trying to remember what had happened to him. Most Hulk-outs didn't end with him being so sore. Had Loki attacked again?

"Are you awake?" A deep voice intoned rather gently from beside him.

"Th-Thor?" He turned his head slightly, wincing at the pain. For the first time, he realized that he wasn't alone in his room. The huge man, (well, demi-god) sat at his bedside, looking concerned.

"Do you have any recollection of what happened?" He asked, still keeping his voice low, for which Bruce was grateful. He didn't think his head would have appreciated a much louder volume.

"I remember something about an invasion? But it was really tiny- no. Drones. We were sent to deal with the scouting drones. What happened after that?" He allowed his head to sink fully back into his pillow, surprised that he was already starting to feel tired.

"Hulk pushed me out of the way of a train. You were buried under the wreckage for quite some time." He lowered his head in regret. He had scolded himself, but that wasn't enough. Warriors do not hide when they make a mistake. "The fault is mine, and I apologize."

Bruce was silent for a while, and Thor almost thought he had fallen asleep, until he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. "Welcome to being human. We all make mistakes." The god of thunder looked up in surprise to see the doctor smiling tiredly. His eyes were slipping closed and Thor could tell he was on his way back to sleep. He still had one thing to say, though. "Make sure Tony stays away from my ice cream while I'm in here, though, and we'll call it even."

Minutes later, passersby on the street below looked up in dismay as storm clouds began to brew, blocking out the sun. Suddenly, a shout of terror could be heard from the penthouse. " _Thor, stop! What did I do?!"_

Yyyyy

Okay, so, I know that a train would not take out the Hulk, but I made him a bit vulnerable to them for this chapter. I also wanted to say that updates will probably not all be this fast. Please review and tell me what you think! :3


	3. Hawkeye

Hawkeye had been in his position countless times before. _Physically_. He was used to the feel of his bowstring against his fingers, knew instinctively how to hold the arrow and aim _just_ _so_ to hit his target dead on. But as he gazed at his target, he knew that this time wasn't like all the others. This time, he was staring across the room from the rafters at his best friend. She didn't see him, too preoccupied with defending herself against the enemies. She would never see it coming. And, though he strained and fought, screaming internally the entire time, she never did.

The arrow hit her from behind, but didn't kill her instantly. No. She had enough time to turn and see who had finally taken out the deadly Black Widow. Her eyes found him . . . and then went blank. He watched her fall, and then woke up in a cold sweat.

Yyyyy

Bruce examined his tea collection, hoping to find something to help him sleep. It was nearly four am, and he hadn't slept a wink. He could already hear Steve heading in to get his morning cup of black coffee before leaving on his morning jog. The super soldier grunted a greeting, which he had just enough brainpower to return. A few minutes of silence later, Bruce had a pot of water boiling and was waving good-bye to his teammate as he left.

The scientist, alone again, sighed and poured his tea into a mug. He was lucky that there was nothing planned for the day. The Hulk tended to get a bit . . . touchy, when he lacked sleep. Just as he was bringing the hot drink closer to his lips, he heard the soft sound of another set of feet enter the room.

"Morning, Clint."

"Mn." The assassin grunted, seeming to be more out of it than he was.

"You sleep alright?" He asked worriedly. Clint shook his head and poured some instant coffee in a cup. As his friend looked on, he attempted to put some leftover boiling water in the cup, and ended up dousing his hand. " _Shit!_ Clint!" Bruce leaped up and yanked the sharpshooter to the sink, turning the water on to cold. He held the burned hand under the water, all the while gazing in worry at the tired expression on the other's face.

Clint, however, was sluggishly trying to sort through everything that had just happened. He hadn't even realized that he had hurt himself, and that scared him. His reflexes were so slow that he had not only done that to himself, but hadn't even felt the pain until it was under the faucet. The other thing that was bothering him, though, was more worrying; Bruce had lunged at him. Outside of Natasha, none of his teammates had ever moved towards him so fast or so suddenly. He had almost registered the scrawny scientist as a threat. Was he really so tired that he would nearly attack a teammate?

"Clint?" Bruce looked up after most of the red had subsided and turned to white in the cold. "What's wrong?"

Clint blinked and stared as his friend turned of the water flow and wrapped his hand in a towel to dry it. Then he sighed. "Loki." He stated simply. Bruce cocked his head to the side in confusion, so he continued, his voice still thick with sleep. Or lack thereof. "When Loki . . . brain-controlled me, I could see everything I was doing. I can still see the face of every person my arrows hit. Recently, I've started having dreams about it. Dreams where . . . where he's back. And I'm under his control again. And I . . . I kill you guys." He swallowed hard, suddenly thankful that he was able to get this of his chest after so long of dealing with it on his own. Bruce just sat by silently, comforting him with his presence. Encouraging him to continue. "I can see each of you, can feel the bow, and the arrow, I . . . I send it at you. And the end is always the same; I hit you dead on. I kill you-,"

" _Ahh!_ " Clint was cut off as Bruce suddenly doubled over, clutching his head and shaking.

"Bruce?" He asked worriedly.

"Clint." Bruce muttered, breathing heavily and supporting himself on the counter. "Get me downstairs. _Now_."

Instantly getting what he meant, Clint grabbed Bruce's arms and half helped, half dragged him to the express elevator. The basement level of Avengers Tower had been converted and remodeled into a Hulk-proof safe room. He could see in the other's eyes that the Hulk was really trying to get out, but the tiny Avenger wasn't going to let him without a fight.

The moment they reached the bottom level, though, brawns replaced brains and the Hulk broke through, growling and snarling. He roared and slammed his fists into the ground, making a small hole with each one.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Clint made a mental note to praise Tony on his Hulk-proofing of the room. The next instant, though, he took it back. As he tried to back up into the elevator, he found that the doors would not open. He clicked the button again, eyes never leaving the beast that was still trying to pick a fight with whatever he could lift (which was, lets face it, basically everything). The doors did not open. In desperation, he turned his head to the ceiling and called out for the only one who could possibly help him.

"JARVIS! GET ME OUTTA HERE!" A moment too late, he realized that he shouldn't have yelled. Hulk froze and stared at him.

"Master Barton-,"

"Jarvis, open the goddamn door. Now! Nownownownow!" He pounded on the door, but nothing happened. Clint managed to jump out of the way just before the Hulk's fist crashed into the wall . . . _beside_ where he'd been? It wasn't like him to miss.

Before he could think on it anymore, though, he found himself running. The (not so jolly) green giant was right behind him.

Yyyyy

"Master Stark." The lights came on in Tony's bedroom causing him to groan, roll over, and ignore the voice in his walls. "Tony. Wake up." The Avenger removed the blanket from his head just enough to see his clock.

"Jarvis, I just went to bed four hours ago. There had better be a good reason for this."

"There are several." Tony sat up. Several? This couldn't be good. "The Hulk made an appearance."

"Where is he?" He couldn't hear anything that would suggest a rampage.

"He is down in the basement. Along with Clint Barton. And there's another problem. It seems that there is a virus in my systems, as neither he nor I was able to get the door open."

The genius sat there in shock for only a moment as he processed everything he had just been told. "Call Nat, Thor, and Cap. I'll work on getting the door open electronically."

There was a pause, and then Jarvis spoke again. "The Black Widow is on her way down, as is Thor, but Capitan America may be a few minutes, as he is out on a run."

"Alright. Have everyone meet up downstairs. Clint may need medical attention, and Hulk might need to be . . . _convinced_ to stay inside." He ran down the hall towards the elevator, giving instructions to his AI butler.

Yyyyy

It took several minutes to get rid of the problem (most likely caused by either Steve or Thor trying to figure out the internet again), and get the doors open. Natasha and Thor stood ready and waiting for the on coming battle, but were surprised to find that, not only did no one run out, but there was no sounds from inside, either. That could not be good.

"Clint? Hulk? Anyone in here?" When Tony didn't get a response, he took a cautious step inside. "Bruce?"

"Over there." Natasha pointed to the far end of the room. There was a lump, lying motionless against the dark grey panels.

"Clint!" The three Avengers ran over and dropped to their knees. The situation, however, turned out to be much more peaceful than they had thought. Clint was stretched out on his side, breathing evenly. A certain doctor was beside him, head propped up on his stomach.

"Are . . . are they . . . sleeping?" Tony asked incredulously.

"I think so." Natasha crept closer and examined first Clint, and then Bruce, for injuries. "They look relatively fine, considering the Hulk dropped by. Just tired."

"That's probably why Hulk didn't stick around very long this time. Bruce and I haven't been getting very much sleep as of late. Looks like the same has been going for Katniss."

Thor stepped forward and gently picked up Bruce. "Let us get these two to bed. It sounds like that's what is needed here." The doctor made a small noise and shifted slightly in his arms.

"Yeah. Lets get them to bed. But, just in case, I'm gonna have Jarvis on alert for any more disturbances tonight."

"Good idea." Natasha hefted her fellow assassin over her shoulders and followed the demi-god to the elevator. "But you do know its morning, right?"

Yyyyy

That night, Clint got his first good night's sleep in a while. Granted, it might have had something to do with the fact that he was too tired to dream, but for the moment, it was a start. And, when he woke up, he knew that he no longer had to keep his fears to himself. He had an Avenger he could turn to for an ear. And if the nightmares ever got to be too much, well, he had a feeling another Avenger could give him a hand with that as well. After all, he had a hard time dodging those giant, green, fists when he was at full power. There was no way he'd been able to survive down there on his own if he'd _really_ been under attack.

Yyyyy

Bruce, on the other hand, had a decidedly _less_ comfortable night's sleep. "For the last time, Tony, I'm trying to sleep. Tell Jarvis to leave me alone, or I swear I will let the Hulk out on purpose."

Yyyyy

(Insert explicative of your choice) This has been mostly written for quite some time now, BUT THE ENDING JUST REFUSED TO BE WRITTEN! I think this is the most abstract way Hulk helps out a teammate. Please tell me what you thought of it! Also, I need help on my Capitan America chapter. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!


	4. Captain America

Steve Rodgers could do many things. He fought Nazis and aliens, survived being stuck in ice for several decades, led the most powerful team on earth, and managed to eat Tony's cooking to no ill effect. What he couldn't do, at the moment, though, was pinpoint the location of the aliens they were currently facing.

"Come on out, you little pests." He muttered, peeking around another corner. Still nothing. His team had spread throughout the building to search, but the coms had remained silent save for reports of empty rooms.

He reached another corner and pressed his back against the wall. Readying his shield, he peeked around and down the next hall, catching sight only of his currently un-transformed teammate. Bruce, as Hulk was not one for stealth and thus had been benched until they had an actual visual of their targets, raised his head in a silent acknowledgment of the other's presence.

"Still nothing?" He asked the scientist, tone hushed as a precaution.

Bruce opened his mouth to respond, but then his face contorted into shock and pain. In an instant, the Hulk was not only out, but right in front of him, having quickly closed the distance between the two.

Letting loose a guttural roar, Hulk smashed into him hard enough to shoot him through the wall and land him in the dumpster outside. Four stories down. If he had been a normal human, he would more than likely be dead. As a super soldier, though, he was merely winded. Rolling over onto his side, he checked quickly for broken bones and was greatly relieved to find none. He would definitely feel that in the morning, though.

"Cap to team, Hulk is loose. Be warned that he's dangerous. I'm no longer in the building."

Static was his only response. Just perfect. There had been some scattered reports of radio interference among the list of warnings they had been given on the way to the scene, but it had been glossed over as potentially operator error. Panic and hurry often led to false reports.

" _HULK SMASH!"_ The angry exclamation quickly let Capitan America know that the danger had not yet passed.

He stood and removed his shield from his arm, preparing his attack should Hulk show himself. Seizing up the distance from the hole to where he currently was, he bent his legs and jumped as high as he could. His hands landed on the rough, destroyed brick and he pushed himself up just in time to see a huge, thin being, grappling with his giant, thick teammate.

It was a foot taller than Hulk, with pale skin almost the exact shade as the white walls surrounding them. Every time Hulk managed to land a hit, the surrounding flesh would ripple a spectrum of colors before returning to its original color. Perhaps even more astounding, though, was the fact that it seemed to be able to hold its own against the large Avenger. Every hit it took only sent it back a few feet. And every hit it doled out at least knocked Hulk off balance.

Cap narrowed his eyes and raised his arm, trying to remain out of the creature's line of sight. He had to time this just right. Hulk pulled his arm back to deliver another blow, and Cap chucked his shield as hard as he could. It flew past Hulk and connected brutally with the alien's face, knocking it off balance just enough for the other Avenger's punch to do actual damage. It toppled over and Hulk wasted no time in pouncing on it. A few minutes later, the fight was over and the creature lay still, skin no longer changing color.

Hulk stood up, snorted angrily at it, and then stumbled forward. Gradually, his form began to shrink and green faded into pale tan, the result of several (rather forced, on his part) group outings. They liked to make sure their scientists were getting the proper amount of sun and exercise, as much as that made them sound like attentive pet owners.

Bruce leaned against the wall and panted. " _Now_ I saw one." He tenderly brought a hand to his ribs and grimaced. "And felt it."

"You could have given me a heads up." Cap knelt by his teammate and examined him for serious injuries. Bruce shifted to allow him more room to work and shook his head.

"No time. The thing blended right in. Probably why we've had so much trouble finding them. It was right behind you. Hulk reacted faster than me." He laughed dryly. "I hadn't even registered what I'd seen until I was fighting it."

"Well, remind me to thank him next time I see him." Cap gestured for him to remain sitting when he made a move to stand. "You took some major hits. I'm benching you unless things really get out of hand."

"Hulk's not going to like that. He wants in on the action." Bruce raised an eyebrow.

"He can help if we really need him, but for now, you're going to have to rein him in a bit. I don't want him getting excited and accidently going after a teammate."

Bruce frowned and fell silent, attempts to push away his leader's arm ceasing. "I'm not so sure anymore that he'd do that. Yeah, when he's completely out of control nothing can stop him, but lately, he's been showing more restraint. I think it's got to do with how much restraint I have to show when Tony gets going on another project." He tried to joke, but his expression remained contemplative.

Captain America didn't want to admit it, but he'd been noticing the same thing. And whether it was disturbingly frightening or a great and welcome relief, he had yet to decide.

Yyyyy

Thank you everyone for putting up with me for this ridiculously long wait! Out of all the Avengers, Capitan America is the hardest to write by far, but I'm kind of proud of this chapter. Please review and tell me what you thought! Also, special thanks to everyone who sent in help and ideas! They helped more than you know! :3


	5. Iron Man

His ears wouldn't stop ringing. He'd had dreams like this before, so real, so _vivid_ , but there was always something off. Something that didn't make sense, but he never took notice while in the dream. It was only afterwards, after his heartbeats had slowed and his sweat had somewhat dried and his surroundings had been confirmed as real that the thing that was wrong becomes realized. And that was what he latched onto. Some fact was wrong, or some object or person had been so drastically out of place that there was no possible way for what had happened to follow him into reality.

"Bruce?"

He was sure he had spoken, he had felt his lips and tongue form the name, but no sound beyond the continuous ringing reached his ears. His chest rose and fell as he spun, desperately searching his surroundings for the man who, last he remembered, had been right beside him. Inhaling a bit more, he tried again.

"Bruce!"

In the distance, a warbling bird returned his call.

"Bruce!"

The bushes moved as something large shifted its position behind him. Heart pounding, Tony suddenly found his emotions doing a one-eighty. Oh, please let this be the thing that didn't add up. Please let this all be a dream.

" . . . Hulk?"

Yyyyy

"Are you sure this is where the plane went down?" Steve asked. Frustration laced his voice but nobody took it personally. They were all on edge. Tony and Bruce were usually the ones to track and search using the tracking beacons and G… what was it? GSP?

"They should be in the area. The equipment must have been damaged in the crash so I'm only able to lock onto the general location." Hawkeye, having come directly from a mission, was in uniform. He and Natasha were doing their best and had managed to South America, but now they, and Thor, were in the middle of a dense jungle with hope being the only thing keeping their search from being a cadaver hunt. Hope that their friends were still alive.

"What the f-…fudge were they doing taking on a job without us?" Clint corrected himself with a quick look at their leader. Cap hadn't noticed.

"We were all busy. We all got the same report. It was probably nothing, just a few reports from unreliable witnesses. But if it turned out they were true, this type of thing is definitely more than the local authorities could handle. I mean, the Rainbow bridge opening randomly in a sparsely populated area? What-,"

"Steve, breathe." Natasha put a hand on his shoulder, firm and strong. "We get reports like that all the time. Usually a small team of SHEILD agents handles it. They were feeling cooped up. Any of us would have done the same thing."

"Still. They might be Avengers, but they're still a businessman and a scientist. How long can they last out here?" Clint hopped up and grabbed a low-hanging branch of a tree. He swung himself up and spun slowly, looking. At this point, anything man-made at all that he could see would most likely belong to the two MIA Avengers.

"I do not believe we will have to search any longer." Thor spoke up suddenly. Before he could be questioned, he held up a hand for silence and it was noticed by all that his head was tilted in a universal listening posture.

Something was moving towards them. Something that was too big to be any of the animals they had seen so far. Too loud to be one of the large predators they had been warned about. And not loud enough to be two lost men.

"Oh thank God! And demi-god! And assassins and soldier, too I guess." Tony tried to regain his composure. "Please get me out of here. Now would be good."

"Easy. Where's Bruce? Are you both alright?" Steve asked as he eyed his teammate up and down for visible injuries. Other than minor cuts and bruises, and of course dirt and grime, he seemed to be fine.

"Bruce? Oh, he's okay. Just peachy. In fact, I doubt he wants to leave. I, on the other hand, require civilization to do silly little daily things like, oh, I don't know, survive." He made another move to walk past them and get in the jeep they had brought. Steve stopped him again.

"Where's Bruce? What happened?"

"What happened? You want to know what happened? Planet of the Apes happened. Hulk is bi- _fucking_ -lingual and nobody ever thought to tell me! He's started his own colony and it's _really_ freaking me out. _Will you just let me get in the car for Christ's sake?!_ "

He let Tony get by him and turned silently to the rest of his team. Words were not needed. Their expressions said everything. Either something had happened to Bruce and this was a psychotic break Tony had suffered as a result, or Bruce was still alive and they needed to see what was going on.

Clint gave a small nod and stepped up to a higher branch, disappearing almost instantly into the shadows of the foliage. He would remain and guard Tony. The rest would follow Tony's trail and find out where he had come from. And hopefully Bruce as well.

And find him they did. Hulk was in control, but not attacking anything. He was wandering around a clearing, interacting with eight massive silverback gorillas almost half his size as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Is everybody else seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Steve didn't turn his attention from the scene in front of him. Neither did anyone else.

"When all this is over, how much do you want to bet that the Science Bros' newest project is going to involve these guys?" Natasha grinned.

Forty feet away, Hulk sat down under a fruit tree, causing a brief shower of apples to rain down on him. Grunting and hooting, the gorillas ran over to gather their share.

Yyyyy

I knew where I wanted to go with this, I just couldn't actually _write_ it. Thank you all for reading! Please review! You all know what chapter is next! :3


End file.
